The present invention relates to a method for rebalancing a facility for the shared use of vehicles comprising a plurality of stations that are geographically remote from each other. It also relates to a system implementing such a method and a facility implementing such a method and/or such a system.
The field of the invention is the field of the shared use of a fleet of vehicles, in particular a fleet of electric vehicles, over a plurality of stations making it possible for users to collect or return such vehicles, for example in the context of automated vehicle rental.
Automated vehicle rental is a fast-growing field. Conurbations wishing to reduce the number of vehicles present in their area are setting up automated vehicle rental facilities.
Automated rental facilities, and more generally facilities for the shared use of a fleet of vehicles, comprise several stations, each enabling users to start to use a vehicle, that is, to take possession of a vehicle, and to return a vehicle after use.
These facilities require station rebalancing operations. It is very rare for a user taking possession of a vehicle at a given station to return that vehicle to the same station after use of the vehicle. In addition, flows of users occur naturally, for example from a residential area to a business area in the morning and vice versa in the evening. As a result, it is common to have “empty” stations where no vehicles are available, while other stations are overloaded with vehicles, with the distribution of the vehicles at the stations not meeting users' requirements as a result.
Such a situation brings several drawbacks, including a very long waiting time for users visiting “empty” stations or those wishing to return a vehicle to an overloaded station, and impaired access to the shared vehicle use service.
In an attempt to remedy these drawbacks, operators have been deployed to rebalance the stations. These operators move vehicles from the overloaded stations to the empty stations.
However, such rebalancing is not effective in reducing the waiting time and increasing access to the vehicle use service. In addition, although such rebalancing is relatively inefficient, it is very costly in terms of labour and very time-consuming.
An object of the present invention is to remedy the aforementioned drawbacks.
Another object of the invention is to propose a method and a system for rebalancing vehicles in a facility for the shared use of vehicles that are more efficient than the existing methods and systems in terms of reducing the waiting time and improving access to the service.
Another object of the invention is to propose a method and a system for rebalancing vehicles in a facility for the shared use of vehicles that are less costly than the existing methods and systems.
Finally, another object of the invention is to propose a method and a system for rebalancing vehicles in a facility for the shared use of vehicles that are more flexible and more responsive to changes occurring in the facility.